The elephant in the room Down Under.

Looming over the heads of everyone at the Essendon Bombers footy club of the AFL is the ongoing investigation by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency (ASADA) of the misuse of "supplements" (i.e., steroids and similar drugs) during the 2012 season. 

In 2013, the team was banned from the playoffs the week before the playoffs started (Carlton was the most surprised finalist in the history of sports, having been out of the playoff chase for weeks before that ruling!). In 2014, the coach and "alleged mastermind", James Hird, served a one-year suspension from footy for his role, and was replaced very capably by fellow club legend "Bomber" Thompson (can't go wrong when your nickname is the team's mascot!). Following the season, there was a frankly-ludicrous little dance where everyone involved picked sides over whether to bring Hird back as promised or cut ties with a 'criminal' and keep Thompson as coach; neither man dignified himself in the process, and eventually Bomber walked away.

Hird, however, kept suing ASADA, even after the Australian court system had verified the legality of every step they'd taken along the way, including serving notices to 34 current and (some now) former Essendon players who may have competed illegally, possibly without their knowledge - and there's the rub. As they used to say about President Nixon here in the US, what did you know and when did you know it? If they literally did NOT know anything illicit was happening, ASADA's promised not to be harsh on them...conversely, knowing accomplices face the kind of penalties drug users in the Olympics typically get, meaning the likely end of their athletic careers.

Here's a piece on the current leg of this controversy, specifically whether those players on the current Essendon roster who are under an active investigation by ASADA should or would be allowed to play in the pre-season games, starting for the Bombers on March 7th in Morwell, Australia, against St. Kilda. (Interestingly, the AFL scheduled Essendon to be the last team to start playing this fall, knowing this issue needed time.) The effect on Essendon this year is hard to predict - even with all the chaos surrounding them in 2014, they still finished in 7th, the same position they finished the previous year when their finals spot was taken away.

Stewart Crameri, a star player for Western who was with Essendon in 2012, also has a ban on him that's affecting how the Bulldogs are preparing for the season.